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The Guru's Cat

THE GURU'S CAT

Each time the guru sat for worship with his students the ashram cat would come in to distract them, so he ordered them to tie it when the ashram was at prayer.

After the guru died the cat continued to be tied at worship time. And when the cat expired, another cat was brought into the ashram to make sure that the guru’s orders were faithfully observed at worship time.

Centuries passed and learned treatises were written by the guru’s scholarly disciples on the liturgical significance of tying up a cat while worship is performed.

It reminds me of a story about an Okinawan martial arts dojo in the united states where the instructor taught his advanced students a certain kata then suddenly passed away without explaining it. For years it was handed down and students faithfully reproduced it, thinking it to contain the "hidden Secrets" of the lineage. Finally one of the students travels to Okinawa and goes to local festival where he notices all the villagers performing the "kata." It turns out that it was a local dance with social, not martial importance. An urban legend as far as I know, but with the same teaching point.

That being said, I'm not untying the cat. He will come in and distract me.

Back in the 14th century a Chinese teacher was invited from the mainland to be the Abbot of one of the Kamakura monasteries. It was the custom of the Japanese to invite noted Chinese teachers back then. But when he arrived, nobody could make out his words in a heavy regional Chinese dialect. So, thinking that his pronouncements must be profound, they had a scribe write them down phonetically and kept them as a temple treasure. Centuries later, scholars were finally able to track the words back to the original dialect and translate them ... and they were found to be full of mundane comments like "has anyone seen my missing socks?" and "where can I get good Tofu around here?". Something like that. Granted, those are "profound teachings" too ... but not what the transcribers thought they were.

I have been to so many Soto Zen Temples in Japan that have their own "way of doing things" which, they insist is "the way things have been in Zen for hundreds of years" ... yet which are often rather different from how the Soto Zen Temple across town "does things as they have been in Zen for hundreds of years".

So, the only thing to do is roll with the local customs and traditions and, "when in Osaka, do as the Osakans do".

One best find the universal, simple Truths that shine behind/in/out/through-and-through all the little different forms and varied packagings.

Im allergic to cats, but our 2 rat terriers have been known to require some attention during Zazen.

Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
"Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
寂道